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8.2. Doctor Who - Into The Dalek

During a space battle against Daleks Lieutenant Journey Blue of the Combined Galactic Resistance is desperately trying to pilot her craft to her command ship, the medical ship the Aristotle, in the hope they can save her brother, Kai, pursued by a saucer. The saucer fires a direct hit, destroying the small craft.

Blue wakes up on the floor of the TARDIS. The Doctor explains that he materialised the TARDIS around her just before her ship was destroyed. The Doctor takes back to the shielded Aristotle that is hidden behind an asteroid. On the Aristotle the Doctor meets the commander, Colonel Morgan, who tells the Doctor that the security of the Aristotle is absolute, so they are still going to kill him. When Blue says the Doctor is a doctor, and the base has a special patient - a Dalek.

Coal Hill School, Earth: Ex-soldier, new maths teacher, and Coal Hill Cadet Squad instructor Danny Pink is getting acquainted with his squad. Clara is introduced to Danny. The introductions don't go well, and in his classroom Danny goes through all the things he wished had said. Clara watches him from the door, and asks Danny to take her out for a drink.

In a store room Clara finds the Doctor offering her two cups of coffee she asked him for three weeks earlier. She follows him into the TARDIS and he takes her to the Aristotle. The Dalek had told the Doctor that the Daleks must be destroyed, and that it would destroy them. The Doctor is sceptical about a Dalek so damaged that it has turned good.

The Doctor proposes getting inside the Dalek's head - and not metaphorically. Using a nanoscaler he, Clara, Blue and two soldiers, Ross and Gretchen, will be shrunk to a point where they can be injected inside the Dalek through its eye-stalk.

Inside the Dalek, named Rusty by the Doctor, they are able to walk around. The Doctor quickly finds the memory banks. The Doctor says they have to get down to the actual Dalek creature. Ross fires zip wires before the Doctor can stop him. The Doctor tells him he has just hurt the Dalek, and like all creatures when injured anti-bodies are sent to kill the invaders.

When anti-bodies start to scan Ross the Doctor hands him a pill. Shortly afterwards the anti-bodies kill and dispose of Ross, but the Doctor is able to track the radiation source and now knows where bodies are dumped. The Doctor leads them to a pipe that leads to the organic refuse storage. They all jump into the pipe and land in a dirty water area that acts as waste disposal for the Dalek. The anti-bodies now leave them alone thinking they are dead.

The Doctor finds a way out through a bolt hole - an actual hole for bolt. Using a Geiger counter that Gretchen is carrying the Doctor sees that the radiation levels in the area they are in are much higher than they should be due to a trionic radiation leak. Rusty is able to see the group, and they are able to communicate with it. Rusty tells them he saw beauty in the birth of a star. Rusty has realised that despite all the deaths Daleks have caused life still returns, and that resistance against life is futile.

Going further into Rusty the Doctor finds the damage in a power cell and repairs the leak with the sonic screwdriver. When the Doctor asks Rusty how he feels it says the malfunction has been repaired, and reboots. Once rebooted it starts to exterminate the people on the Aristotle.

Free from the room it has been kept in Rusty finds the communications controls and signals to the Dalek saucer to let them know where to find the Aristotle, and more Daleks arrive and board.

Inside Rusty the Doctor realises there was never a good Dalek, only a broken one that they repaired. Whilst Blue and Gretchen start to set explosive charges inside the Dalek Clara is upset with the Doctor. Whilst Clara is prepared to believe a Dalek could be good the Doctor cannot believe that, and is almost pleased when Rusty turned out to be the same as every other Dalek. Clara convinces the Doctor that the Dalek can be better, and the Doctor convinces Blue not to destroy the Dalek.

Instead the Doctor takes them up to the cortex vault. Whilst the Dalek may be back to being evil, the memories it experienced are locked away in the vault. Gretchen gives her life (although as she is killed she wakes up to Missy making offering her tea) to help Clara and Blue get up to the cortex vault as the Doctor makes his way to another section of the Dalek to come face to face with Rusty.

In the cortex vault Clara spots some lights of the memory blanks that are darker, and thinks these could be suppressed memories. Inside the memory banks Clara is able to hit some of the memories, restoring them and sending impulses into Rusty. As memories are restored Rusty reboots. With Rusty's mind open to new possibilities about the Daleks the Doctor connects himself to Rusty, and the Dalek is able to see into the Doctor's mind and soul.

Rusty can see the beauty the Doctor sees, and the hatred he has of the Daleks. Rusty focuses on the Doctor's hatred and starts to destroy the Daleks that have invaded the Aristotle.

With the Daleks destroyed the Doctor, Clara and Blue are able to get out of the Dalek and back to full size where they find Colonel Morgan and the remaining soldiers. Rusty tells the Doctor it has transmitted a retreat signal to the Dalek saucer and told it the Aristotle is about to self-destruct. Rusty leaves the Aristotle to complete its work.

As the Doctor and Clara are about to leave Blue asks the Doctor to take her with him. He says he would have had she not been a soldier.